Overview
What is a Valuation Surveyor?
Valuation Surveyors are real estate and built environment professionals that specialise in valuation, be it in commercial or residential work. These surveyors assess the value of properties by applying expert knowledge and awareness of local property markets.
As a profession within the umbrella of real estate, valuers can go by other titles, such as Commercial Surveyors, Residential Surveyors and RICS Registered Valuers.
How much do Valuation Surveyors earn?
The average salary of a valuation surveyor is usually between £23,000 – £60,000 a year.
Skills
What’s required for the role?
- Numerical skills and maths
- Commercial awareness
- Excellent communication skills
- Interpersonal skills
- The ability to negotiate
- Teamwork
- Report writing
- Familiarity with data analysis and interpretation
- Use of perceptual skills
- Researching
- Knowledge of the construction process
- An understanding of building technology
Details
What does a Valuation Surveyor do?
Valuers have a wide range of responsibilities that can vary depending on their seniority and the area of real estate they work for. Some of these include:
What is the work environment like?
Valuers may work in the public sector, for residential firms or in private practice. Commercial valuers work on offices, industrial, retail, alternatives and mixed-use buildings, while residential valuers are focused on housing, residential development projects and conversion projects.
Valuers tend to work typical office hours – many work from home, however some flexibility and travel are often required, as site visits are part of the role in many businesses. As such, a driving license is usually required.
Opportunities
Is valuation a good career?
As with the wider real estate management sector, valuation is a diverse profession where people can choose to work on the specific types of properties that appeal to them.
While valuation is itself a specialism within real estate, the skills of this profession can be applied to the broader real estate market, giving valuers the ability to work on a variety of properties.
It’s also a profession with an increasingly prominent role in sustainability and environmental concerns. In updated guidance from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), appraisal and valuation of land and property are recognised for their importance in the delivery of sustainability and ESG requirements.
However, real estate is suffering from the same shortage of green skills as the rest of the built environment. According to a UCEM survey of 300 professionals in the sector, 96% of real estate respondents indicated they felt that their industry desperately needs more talent.
For people interested in valuation, this can mean both long-term security and pathways for progression, alongside the opportunity to make a meaningful difference to climate change.
Become a Valuation Surveyor
Who can work in valuation?
Anyone with an interest in property that loves working with people can pursue a career in valuation. At UCEM, thousands of students from various backgrounds have entered the industry, strengthened their promotion credentials or even swapped careers entirely in the built environment. Find out about their experiences below:
How to become a Valuation Surveyor
To become a valuer, a non-cognate or RICS-accredited degree is usually required. Most surveyors will work towards achieving chartered status with the RICS (referred to as MRICS) to strengthen their credentials.
Degree apprenticeships are emerging as an alternative to the traditional university route, giving aspiring valuers the professional qualifications they need alongside hands-on experience in the profession.
Along with obtaining degrees, online CPD courses in relevant subjects can strengthen your employment credentials, such as:
